Wounds That Never Heal
[A/N: Does anyone remember why Izzy, TK, and Kari might have opposed the younger kids going to talk to Shinji? Anyway, this shows why Shinji had a program written, and the virus so quickly destroyed. I'm going to have fun with this. Oh yeah…]
[Disclaimer: Don't own.]
"What do you mean Shinji was at your school?" Tai asked. "We told the principal about a virus on the computers yesterday, and he called Shinji to fix it." Kari explained, hugging a pillow and in her pajamas. "Man, Izzy was right." Tai murmured, "That really is weird."
That weekend, Izzy had called together most the older Digi-destined, and let the younger kids tag along.
"Now whatever you do, don't ask her where her parents are." Sora advised as the group walked down the sidewalk. Davis raised an eyebrow, but didn't question.
Tai knocked on the door of a house, and waited. A rather tired looking Shinji answered, wearing a loose gray t-shirt and loose black pants. "Hey, Tai." she said in a tired voice, but with a smile, "I haven't seen you guys in four years." "Hey buddy!" Tai laughed, a sweatdrop rolling down the back of his head, "How's it going?" "Fine, and why are you all here anyway?" Shinji replied.
"Mind if we come in?" Matt laughed. The tall teen blinked a bit at the weird half-hearted smiles on Tai and Matt's faces, but moved aside for the group to walk inside.
"So why were you at Kari's school yesterday?" Tai asked. He and the rest of the group were lounging in one of the larger rooms in Shinji's house, all a bit nervous. "I was fixing the computers." Shinji replied simply. Tai sweatdropped and drank a bit more of tea. "Then why'd you stay until the end of the day?" Cody asked. "Because I wanted to talk to TK and Kari." the teen replied with a quick answer again.
"Look, I know that you fixed the computers, quite well I might add, but you were never good with computers." Izzy spoke up, setting down his tea, "So how did you know how to fix a virus that stumped ME?" Everyone glanced at Izzy. "Something stumped you?" Sora asked, blinking.
"What does it matter?" Shinji countered, "And you still haven't told me why you're really here!" "Fine." Gatomon hopped from Kari's lap to in front of Shinji. The two glared at each other for a while. "You and Myotismon are in a serious, and I mean serious relationship." the cat hissed, "And yesterday, you practically insulted him! What's going on?!"
"Gatomon, if want to insult me, I WILL throw you directly off my roof and into a high-traffic road." Shinji countered, poking Gatomon in the chest, "Now if you would like to ask me a real question, I'd be HAPPY to answer." The cat digimon hissed, but slunk back to Kari. "C'mon, what's going on?" Cody tried. "Why are you guys giving me the royal inquisition?!" Shinji snapped, "I fixed the computers, and gave Patamon a new way to digivolve! What more do you want to talk about?!"
"Why did you jump Davis?" TK asked. Everything was silent for a minute. Then, Demiveemon yawned from being tired, and forgot the essential thing Sora told everyone.
"Won't your parents get mad at you for having so many people here?" he questioned, "And where are they?" The older kids turned a dark blue color and stared at Demiveemon.
The shattering of glass brought them back to reality. "Get. OUT." Shinji said in a low growl, her glass nothing but shards, mostly embedded in her hand. Joe jumped up and said, "Let me take a look at that!" But Shinji leapt to her feet and roared, "GET OUT!!" Joe froze, and dashed for the door. Everyone else followed suit. Cody and Upamon were the last to leave, and looked back once. He sighed and closed the door.
Cody looked around, but the others had run away already. He heard a loud thump behind him, and couldn't tell what it was.
What Cody had heard was Shinji punching the door after he had shut it. She punched the thick wood with her glass-covered hand, driving a piece of glass deeper into her skin. She turned about and slid to the floor, leaning against the door. The blood flowed freely from her hand, from the glass wounds. Shinji stared at her hand with half-lidded, glazed, and tearful eyes and a partly open mouth.
"Wounds that can never heal always hurt the most."
Cody faced his grandfather later that afternoon, practicing Kendo. His mind kept drifting, and he wasn't paying attention. "HAH!" his grandfather dashed forwards and tapped Cody on the head with his bokken.
"Cody, what is wrong?" Cody's grandfather asked as they rested, "Your mind wasn't here today." "I know." Cody murmured, "I'm sorry." "What is troubling you?" Grandfather wondered. Cody paused. "It's nothing, Grandpa." he muttered. "You aren't telling a lie are you?" Grandfather wondered. Cody shook his head. It wasn't really bothering him. It was puzzling him. "That will be all for today." Grandfather patted Cody on the shoulder.
Cody nodded, gathered his things, and left.
The next day, TK and Kari said that they were busy and couldn't go to the Digiworld. Most the others understood, because they would need Patamon along, and he looked pretty beat.
"Doesn't it seem a little weird that we lied to get out of going to the Digiworld?" TK wondered as he and Kari walked down the sidewalk. "TK! KARI!" Cody's voice suddenly yelled. The two looked up to see Cody running towards them from the other side of the street. He hadn't been at the computer room that afternoon to hear that the group wasn't going.
"Where are you going?" the ten-year-old inquired. "Nowhere." TK lied quickly. Cody frowned. "I know that you're going to go and apologize to Shinji about yesterday." he said. TK sweatdropped. "You are punctual." Gatomon said from Kari's arms. "Look, I want to come too!" Cody insisted, "I figured out why you didn't want us to say anything about Shinji's parents, and I can sympathize!"
TK and Kari glanced at one another. They had forgotten that Cody's father… "OK, you can come too." TK agreed, "But just pick your words a lot more wisely than Demiveemon or Davis." Cody smiled and bit and nodded. The group started down the sidewalk once more.
Shinji lay on her back on the floor, staring up at her bandaged hand. "Why didn't I hurt this hand…" she muttered, glancing at her gloved left hand. A knock at the door brought her out of her thoughts, and she got up.
She was extremely surprised, and a bit angry, when she saw TK, Kari, and Cody standing in front of the door. "Can we come in?" Kari asked. There was an uncomfortable pause for a while. But Shinji turned and walked off, leaving the door open. The younger Digi-destined took the hint and walked inside, Cody shutting the door.
"We're sorry about Demiveemon." TK apologized, bowing to the eldest Digi-destined, "He and Davis… Well they aren't all that smart." "I gathered that when I met him." Shinji murmured.
"And we're sorry about the others." Kari added. "What about them?" Shinji inquired. "Well, they were acting strangely." Patamon pitched in from TK's head. Shinji didn't answer.
"But can I ask how you knew how to fix the computers, when Izzy didn't?" Cody asked, stepping forwards. Shinji glanced at Cody. Their eyes met for a minute, and the older Digi-destined sighed. "Follow me." she murmured, walking off. Cody followed immediately, TK and Kari rushing after.
"Don't trip over the wires." the eighteen-year-old ordered as she walked into a room and flipped on a light switch. TK and Kari looked around and gaped. "This is Izzy's dream…" Gatomon said softly. The room was filled with computer equipment, discs, and other items that Izzy would have paid anything for.
"If you really must know how I fixed the computers, I planted the virus." Shinji explained, walking to a PC on a desk in the corner.
The younger kids looked up in shock. "What do you mean?" Patamon asked. "I planted the virus in an e-mail." Shinji confessed, "When your friend, Yolei, opened it, that activated the virus. That's how I knew."
"I read about that in some weird book Kari's dad had lying around." Gatomon hissed, "It's called profiteering, and it's against the law." "Almost everything I do is against the law lately." Shinji sighed, sitting down. The kids gaped.
"Why?" Cody asked. Shinji didn't answer, but slid off the black glove on her left hand. She lifted her hand and showed the kids what she had been hiding.
"I know that the Gate's been open for a while." she muttered, "I knew before you did anyway. I went there the minute I knew it was open." "Yeah, and what does this black circle on the back of your hand have to do with it?" TK asked.
"There was someone in the Digital World before me, and before Ken." Shinji continued, "Her name is Tari Ikarin, and now, she's the self-proclaimed Digital Empress. When I went to the Digiworld that day, I met her and her digimon, Blackgatomon."
Gatomon's ears flicked up. "Of course, Tari is much smarter than Ken could ever be about digimon." Shinji continued, "She knew that the Dark Rings and Spirals would never work." "And?" Kari asked. "She created something that can control anything, whether it be digimon, animals, or humans." Shinji finished, "She created something called the Dark Mind, and that's what the black circle on my hand has to do with it."
"What does it mean though?" Upamon asked. "When Tari realized who I was, she took out a Dark Mind." Shinji continued, "All it is, is a little black ball. But she threw it at me, and well…" Everyone's eyes opened wide in realization. "I've been under Tari's control for the past few months." Shinji sighed, "Not fully, but mostly."
"That's why you planted the virus." Cody summed up, "Tari didn't want us to mess around with her plans after Ken left, so she wanted you to screw up the computers." "You're smarter than Ken." Shinji laughed. "So what do we do?" Kari asked. "YOU guys have to stay away from me." Shinji replied, "I've been working as much as I can on the Warrior Weapons for the rest of you, but with Tari hanging over my shoulder…"
There was an uncomfortable silence. "As long as I don't go to the Digiworld, I can keep my head." Shinji murmured, "But if I try to fight, it'll be worse."
"Tell us where Tari lives!" Cody snapped suddenly, "We can fight!" In response, Shinji handed the youngest Digi-destined a tape. "This is all I know at the moment about Tari." she remarked, "I've been trying to hack into her school files, but her school has a good security system." Cody looked back up and sniffed a bit.
"We'll get rid of Tari!" TK promised, "Don't worry about it!" He and Kari hurried back towards the front door, going to tell the others about the news. Cody lagged behind.
"I know how you feel." he admitted, "My father's gone too." "Yes, I've read your files." Shinji confessed, "But you've got some family. Just be careful around Tari. She won't hesitate to attack anyone." She patted Cody on the shoulder and smiled. Cody smiled, and hurried off to catch up with TK and Kari.
Shinji shut the door and smiled a bit. But her expression turned swiftly to pain as her blue eyes flew open and the colored area nearly disappeared altogether. She slid to the floor, clutching her head in pain.
In a dark room, Tari Ikarin, a thirteen-year-old, black-haired, green-eyed girl laughed. "Fool!" she laughed, "No one escapes my control! EVER!" She watched a screen, grinning at Shinji's pain.
"Now c'mere and follow my orders." she whispered, tapping a key.